All Eras Come to an End: The Anne Frank Tree

As solid as the earth seems, all eras, all life and all matter must come to an end. Even the earth will one day be engulfed by the sun when it inflates into a red giant. Last week we saw the end of the neo-con era. This week, the Amsterdam City Council announced that the Anne Frank Chestnut tree will have to be cut down due to a fungal infection. As Anne Frank wrote in her diary on Wednesday, February 23rd, 1944 (the 597th day of her imprisonment in the Annex, and the 3rd year, 9th month and 9th day of the German occupation of Holland):

It's lovely weather outside and I've quite perked up since yesterday. Nearly every morning I go to the attic where Peter works to blow the stuffy air out of my lungs.  From my favorite spot on the floor I look up to the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver,  and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind.

Anne Frank was born on June 12, 1929. She died sometime around February or March of 1945 in Bergen-Belsen after being transferred from the Auschwitz concentration camp. But the chestnut tree lived on, and became a symbol of Anne Frank's life. Perhaps, it is fitting that the tree dies at what would have been the end of Anne Frank's life expectancy, for Anne Frank would have been 77 years old.

In our minds, as John F. Kennedy will always be a young president, Anne Frank will always be a teenager. But the passing of the chestnut tree reminds us that they too would have aged had they not met tragedy. But as all eras, life and matter must come to an end, ideas can endure. Ideas can be passed on from one generation to another. The chestnut tree reminds us how cruel humans can be, and how we must fight ignorance to avoid such cruelties.

We humans have the power of imagination. We also have the power of language. Many people will speak of the chestnut tree that gave Anne Frank delight. Through the imagination of the chestnut tree, we ponder the cruelties of humankind that sealed Anne Frank's fate. In the modern world, we now also have photography and the internet. With a push of a key we can now observe the tree and ponder the ideals of peace and humanitarianism.

So we no longer need the tree to remind us about this cruelty of humankind, and the idea of peace and humanitarianism can endure. But we have the responsibility to pass on these ideals to our children. If we do not take this responsibility then the idea of peace and humanitarianism becomes another era and becomes mortal just like all life and matter.

Last week, we won the election. But one election does not make an idea endure. In order for the ideals of peace and humanitarianism to endure, these ideals must win from election to election, and from generation to generation. Thus, our task is never over.